In accordance with regulations established by CARB (California Air Resources Board), a vehicle's VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) must be registered to the vehicle's ECU (Electronic Control Unit). In known manufacturing processes, the VIN data for a particular vehicle is read from an external record, i.e. from a body assembly sheet or other hard copy attached to the vehicle. The VIN data is then read into an Immobilizer, a device that communicates with the vehicle ECU and writes to the ECU memory, which then writes the VIN to the ECU. In the event that an incorrect VIN is provided (i.e. vehicle assembly sheet error; improper scan; etc.) there is no procedure for detecting the error, or ensuring that the error does not occur in the first place. Thus, the Immobilizer has no capability of verifying the correct VIN data.
The manufacturing facility maintains records of information about a vehicle. Such information includes the factory vehicle specifications, specific components included in the vehicle, and a manufacturing history of the vehicle on the particular production shift. This information is collected by a computer-implemented production control system and stored in a central database. However, the known Immobilizer is not linked to the production control system, as generally indicated in FIG. 1D. Thus, there is no way to store the ECU VIN registration record in the central database.